How much to invest for the long haul

When you’re in your 20s, you’re probably just starting out in your first job and concerned with making a good impression. Even if you might still be living with your parents, buying a new wardrobe, going out to fit into your new environment, enjoying your independence will become paramount concerns, rightly or wrongly.

In your 30s, you are most likely raising a family, saving for your children’s education, taking out a home mortgage, paying for your first or second car, and some of you might be taking care of an aging parent.

If you are in the 40-something age group, you might have bigger salaries and bonuses, but will be dealing with health issues too and higher cost of living. At what point do you seriously start thinking about investing for retirement and how much do you set aside? With all these financial concerns at the back of your mind, it’s no surprise that retirement will be taking a backseat.

I read a rule of thumb in The Asian Wall Street Journal’s Lifetime Guide To Money (Dow Jones & Co., Inc.,) that to figure out how much to invest in the long haul, you should subtract your age from 100 and add a percentage sign.

Using that rule, I’m under-investing and spending too much on current concerns! That is, unless I count the money hubby and I are putting into our home.

How about you?

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